South Korea Starts Criminal Insurrection Trial Of Impeached President Yoon

South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol argued that his brief martial law declaration late last year was “not a coup d’etat” as he appeared in court on Monday for the start of a criminal trial over charges that he led an insurrection.

The martial law attempt, which lasted about six hours before Yoon backed down in the face of parliamentary opposition and public protests, plunged the country into months of turmoil and led to the Constitutional Court removing him from the presidency this month for violating constitutional powers.

After leaving his house in a motorcade on Monday, Yoon, who has denied all charges against him, entered the Seoul Central District Court wearing a dark navy suit and red tie.

At the start of proceedings, prosecutors presented their case by arguing Yoon lacked the legal grounds to declare martial law and accused him of trying to paralyse state institutions such as parliament.

“The defendant … made it impossible for constitutional institutions to exercise their authority based on an unlawful declaration,” the prosecution said.

Yoon, who was the country’s chief prosecutor before becoming president, defended himself in court, talking at length to refute the prosecution’s allegations.
“Martial law is not a coup d’etat,” Yoon said.

He denied paralysing the government and said martial law was needed to alert the people to how the majority opposition party was stonewalling government by impeaching more than 20 officials, which he saw as dangerous.

“This was a peaceful ‘message martial law’ to the nation… I knew this martial law would end within half-a-day, a day,” Yoon said.

Yoon said although he had communicated this intention to ex-defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, military officials carrying out the order seemed to have overstepped it because they were used to training for martial law under different guidelines.

Insurrection Charges

The martial law declaration, which cited the need to root out “anti-state” elements, was lifted after parliamentary staffers used barricades and fire extinguishers to ward off special operations soldiers trying to enter parliament, where lawmakers voted to reject martial law.

The charge of masterminding insurrection faced by the impeached leader is punishable by life imprisonment or even death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades.

He remains defiant and has pledged to “stand by” his supporters. The opposition Democratic Party slammed Yoon on Monday as delusional for not making any sincere apology.

The country will now hold a snap election on June 3. Questions remain over whether Yoon might still play a role.

Lee Jae-myung, the opposition leader who is leading presidential polls, on Monday visited a start-up that develops artificial intelligence chips, pledging to ease regulations with aggressive investments in the AI industry.

Reuters/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma